The Project

Two-Way Bridges. Connecting Duke, Durham, and the Americas

The central goal of this project is to expand the bridges we have begun building between Duke and the Durham Latino communities and simultaneously make them into bi-directional ones. In other words, we will seek to offer means for the Latino community to have greater access to the university and to have Duke students engage the community both in the community and at Duke. Duke can be changed by these relationships, as will the community that surrounds us; thus the metaphor of the two-way bridge.

We have built a partnership between our collaborating faculty and staff – representing the Center for Documentary Studies, the Spanish Language Program, The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, The Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South, and DukeEngage on the Border/Encuentros de la Frontera – and local organizations representing the Latino community. We will continue to forge a partnership with key collaborators, Latino artists who already reside in Durham and beyond.

Through collaborative art and interpretation as well as bidirectional learning, this project have been teaching the various constituencies the geopolitical implications surrounding immigration, immigration policy, border crossing, and integration of diasporic communities into local and national communities. Students and faculty may become better positioned to offer innovative solutions in the form of policy and research, as well as to help educate the greater community.